Before the throne of God - Shane and Shane

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong, a perfect plea:
A great High Priest, whose name is Love,
Who ever lives and pleads for me.

My name is graven on his hands,
My name is written on his heart;
I know that while in heaven he stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart
No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair,
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look, and see him there
Who made an end of all my sin.

Because a sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free;
For God, the Just, is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me
To look on Him and pardon me

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Praise the One,Risen Son of God!

Behold him there, the risen Lamb
My perfect, spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
The King of glory and of grace!

One with himself, I cannot die
My soul is purchased with his blood
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ, my Savior and my God
With Christ, my Savior and my God

Awesome lyrics by Shane and Shane

Philly

Now now, it would not be right to have mom see DC and NY and not give her a taste of good ol Philly.

We took a bus tour but it was nothing like the one in DC. Philly come on, style up a little bit remember this is the birth place of U.S.A.
Anyway we were all squashed up, there was hardly any room between the sits and unlike DC where we had an audio recording, we had a tour guide who was really labouring in love. At first we were skeptic but it turned to be a good thing, the guy was funny and even though he had been telling the same story several times that day and who knows how many times through out the summer, he still made it an interesting and learning experience. Come to think of it, he has just begun because we are fresh out of winter and heading into summer. Boy! he has lots of talking to do this summer, the good thing is he enjoys what he does.









Philadelphia City Hall. It's the largest, tallest, and most expensive of all city halls in the United States. The statue at the top is of William Penn, the guy who pretty much founded and planned the lay out of Philly.
Betsy Ross house. Betsy was the lady who sewed the first American flag.

Philadelphia Museum of Art, aka the Rocky steps. Can you see someone at the top of the stairs with hands raised? yup, that's me. Mich is almost invisible but he is standing right next to me.


One thing I wanted to do before I left Philly was to jog up those stairs and do the "Rocky Balboa pose". Aaaah! now I can leave in peace.

Long Wood Gardens

Last Monday we took a trip to Longwood gardens, a very beautiful garden displaying flowers from almost all continents.




I'm thinking I might go back there in a little while to harvest that matooke because mmm it looks yummy.
We went with Brad and Becca (my pastor and his wife) it was fun hanging together.
The beauty of the gardens can't be articulated, one has got to see them for one's self. The gardens were purchased by a man called Pierre S. du Pont in 1906 and he created this magnificent garden that people enjoy today. I hear it was like his summer home and the gardens were in his back yard. I don't know how true that is seeing as ...













it's quite big. Fancy this as a backyard, huh?!


It's got fruits and vegetables, a picnic area, a desert house, a tropical house, fountains. Think about horticulture - it's all here.

A soaking wet graduation

It was a beautiful day, well at least it started off that way.
By 11am the graduand was set and ready to go, he looked grand and spiffy as always :-). He had to be at the graduation hall early we waved him off.

Mom, Mich and I had a little more time so we got ready at our own pace.

I pulled out my little number (dress) that I had planned (for seasons) to wear for the big occasion. I had already imagined how I would look in it. It was a perfect dress to celebrate spring/summer. Some where a long the way plans changed and I ended up wearing a gomesi (traditional dress) - the very first in my life and that is not counting the little ones we used for folk songs back in primary school.

I was a little apprehensive at first but after a while I got comfortable and managed to pull it off.
I had lots of admirers I tell you, thanks to mom.

The clouds got really dark and heavy as the day progressed so we carried umbrellas but kept our fingers crossed - hoping that the "rain rain would go away and come back another day".
The ceremony was in the Franklin stadium- an open enormous field, with no shade, you get the picture?(a sure way to get drenched) well, for those of you who don't get it - here
















The graduands walked on to the field and oh my!- it was a wonderful moment. The feeling of 'wow! it's finally over, the hard, hard work has paid off'. Well not that we are making big bucks yet but we can officially start making the money to pay off school loans, rent, electricity, school tuition for Mich and maybe me, and so on and so forth. Isn't it interesting the things we live for?! - go to school, study hard, get a job and start paying for things. Aha!



















Mom screamed and shouted her heart out when she saw her 'baby'. It was a very special moment for us. Not many people get to see their children graduate from a masters programme in an internationally recognised institution like Wharton. But I'm thinking maybe there should be certificates for spouses and partners because ...
Anyway, as soon as the ceremony commenced it started to rain and rain it did for the rest of the day.
We managed to get some shed but the most graduands got soaked to the bone. Some to the extent that you could hear squish squash as they walked because their shoes were water logged.
Sam took an umbrella so he was fine.
In Uganda I imagine the ceremony would have stopped until the rain subsided but here that is not an option. The graduands walked up in the rain as their names were read and the professors got soaked as they waited to shake each hand. Poor fellows, first they spend their days and nights lecturing and because they were so good at what they do they are chosen to stand in the rain to congratulate their students (an interesting way to get appreciated).

Grandma in DC

Washington Monument.

We thought it would be good to give mom a tour of the East Coast while she is here.

Our first stop was Washington DC, of course. We took an open bus tour of the nations historical sites and majestic monuments. Even though Sam and I had visited some of these places, taking a tour by bus was much more fun, a lot more productive - we got to see more than we would have on foot and certainly less strenuous - all we had to sit back and relax while the tour guide (pre -recorded audio) fed us with the information.


The Jefferson Memorial
The US Capitol
Just behind those trafic lights is the white house, I failed to get a better view
The National Cathedral, where most of the "important" people have their memorial services as stuff.

Our plan was to spend a night in a hotel and head back to Philly the next day. But because DC is a happening joint I decided to call my friend Mercy to see how we could link up. Apart from that mom also wanted to see another friend and relative - Helen, who also happens to be her god daughter.
Mercy gave us directions to her place, it was perfect timing because she wasn't working that day. So Friday we headed up to her home and had a splendid lunch together. It was wonderful seeing her after almost a year. Being the loving couple that they are, Mercy and Moses invited us to spend a night with them. We were in no rush to head back to Philly so we agreed. We had a fabulous time, catching up, eating, shopping, eating, uh, eating, oh yes, then we watched a movie at the end of the day. Meanwhile Helen was able to make it to Mercy's home so it was a nice reunion for god mother and daughter and grand kids.






The next day we got ready to start our journey back to Philly but first Sam and Mercy had to pick Steven (yet another close friend) from the metro station. We had a sumptuous breakfast courtesy of Moses (the man of the house). It was a full table - buns, cookies, omelet, cassava chips, juice, tea, grapes, strawberries, ok I better stop there.


So as you can see, DC was fan-tastic. I give God the glory

Grandma

Wow! a lot has been happening since I last made a posting and I'm actually wondering how to cram it all up in here. Well, quite honestly I can't do that but I will give a few highlights as we go along.

The first exciting news is that mom came in two Fridays ago. We were all thrilled to see her again, after two years of being apart any child or parent would know the joy of a reunion.



















It was like a school visitation day, mom brought lots of goodies from home, so we are stocked for the new few months.
Mich last saw her when he was two years old so obviously his memory of her was barely existent. All he knew was that he had a grandma.
He was happy to see her and proud to introduce her to his teachers when she took him to school the next day. So for those who thought he didn't have a grandma, now was the time to prove them wrong, it was his 'show and tell" day.

By the way that was the last day he went to school because since then he has been taking grandma around town. The other thing he has been doing is eating sweets, he probably thinks there is a candy factory in grandma's handbag because candy is never in short supply.